General

Scan to email woes with SSL/TLS

| admin

It’s been a while since I posted anything, but I thought this deserves the time to be posted.

At work, we have some Lexmark x364 and Lexmark x544 MFDs, along with Xerox 7125’s. We use these around the business to scan documents directly to email.

Recently our hosted exchange parter (Fasthosts.co.uk) announced that they are turning off CRAM-MD5 connections, in favour of SSL/TLS. Unfortunately, our Lexmarks being slightly older have no option for SSL connections to email, and the Xerox simply didn’t seem to work no matter what options I tried.

After being grumpy for a couple of days because I couldn’t work out what I was going to do, I stumbled upon a piece of software called stunnel, which acts as a TLS proxy.

You will need to install it on an ‘always on’ device, such as a file server, then you point your non TLS device to that server, it then does the negotiation and sends the traffic on to the email server.

The default config comes setup for GMail, which also doesn’t accept non secure connections, so it just needed a little tweaking for our server, this is the main section that needs changing:

From:
[gmail-smtp]
client = yes
accept = 127.0.0.1:25
connect = smtp.gmail.com:465
verify = 2
CAfile = ca-certs.pem
checkHost = smtp.gmail.com
OCSPaia = yes

To this

[fasthosts-smtp]
client = yes
accept = my servers internal ip:25
connect = smtp.fasthosts.co.uk:465
verify = 2
CAfile = ca-certs.pem
checkHost = smtp.gmail.com
OCSPaia = yes

Once you have changed that, save the file and reload the config.

Then point your scanners SMTP setting to your stunnel servers IP using port 25. Add your email address and password in the settings on the scanner, as that is used for authentication to the server. Save the settings, and start scanning.

From the testing I have carried out, it appears to not have any impact of the speed of the emails being sent. They are still waiting in my inbox by the time I get back from the scanner!

If anyone is struggling setting this up, please comment below and I will see what I can do!

General

Carpetright – Cheltenham: Lacking in aftersales care!

| admin

Looking back over my past posts, you might think I am a grumpy git…

In my defense, if companies just did what they said they would, I would not be grumpy!

carpetright

This moan is about Carpetright in Cheltenham, at the Gallagher retail park.

We selected our carpet fairly quickly, and arranged for a chap to come and measure up our stairs and landing to get a proper quote. That part of the process was smooth. We were happy with the quote, and decided to proceed (Although we were pressured slightly to accept the quote before the ‘sale’ ended). A date was booked for the 29th June (today!).

We were contact last week to say their fitter was actually on holiday on the 29th, so we would need to re-book. We were not happy with that, as it had already been booked for over a week. Fortunately, the store manager was able to call in a favor, and had another contractor who could fit it on the 29th at 10am. Excellent!

Well it is now 12 o’clock on the 29th…and we still have bare stairs. We have spoken to the store, they have been unable to contact the fitter. So what do we do now? I have a good mind to go in on Monday, kick up a stink, and get my money back.

Update: They have confirmed it isn’t happening today. They have re-booked us for next Saturday, oh goody!

 

Next moan might be later today. We are going to Dunelm to exchange a faulty item. Can’t wait!

General

DJ Dougal New Year ’96 – Old Skool Raver

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Today, on the long journey home, I re-discovered an old MP3 that I had recorded off a tape (I know, old school!)

Back in the day, me and a few of my mates used to play this on frequent visits to burger king in Mr Jobsons XR3i convertible!

It brings back many happy memories, so I thought I would share it with any ‘old skool ravers’ out there.

Here is the audio if you fancy a listen! DJ Dougal – New Year 96

 

Cars, Phones

AudioVox Media Bridge 1501 AVW – Golf MK5

| admin

So today, I installed the AudioVox Media Bridge in my Golf.

Installation went OK, got the usual cuts and scrapes that one always get when putting your hands behind a dashboard…

The kit itself ‘should’ be great. I say ‘should’ because at the moment…it doesn’t work! All I get from the unit is ‘no usb device’, even when trying to select bluetooth mode. Very frustrating. I have logged a support email with AudioVox, and with the place I purchased the kit from. Hopefully it will be an easy fix, maybe I missed something in the operating manual. (Yes I did read it!)

I will post a full review when/if I get it working.

Edit: It’s amazing what a good nights sleep will do for the brain!

This morning I woke up, and went to the car to start fiddling. I managed to get the device to play audio from a USB memory stick, so feeling brave, I tried to get it into bluetooth mode. Low and behold it worked, now to start pairing…oh, my phones in the house…

OK, so now I have my phone, lets try that again….

Try as I might, I could not get it back in to pairing mode. Then, in a flash of inspiration, I thought; ‘unplug it and plug it back in’, and it worked! This must have reset the device, so I went back into BT mode, paired the phone made a quick test call, and streamed some music.

All seems well now. BT audio quality is excellent. Call quality is good too. I have the microphone mounted on the air vent to the right hand side of the steering wheel, I may move it to the top of the A-pillar next time it stops raining.

Expect a full review soon, in the meantime, if you have any questions post a comment below.